American Influencer: I Faced a Dilemma as a Businessman During the U.S.-China Tariff War

Source: WeChat Official Account "Dixian Siwei", an editorial column of Guancha.cn

The China-U.S. high-level meeting on economic and trade affairs achieved substantial progress by significantly reducing bilateral tariff levels. However, the existential dilemma facing countless small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) owners remains stark. Take the case of "TikTok refugee" Shane Murlin, an Oregon-based entrepreneur and influencer on Rednote, China’s Instagram-like platform. Beyond his online fame as a rural lifestyle content creator, Murlin runs a party rental business severely impacted by the trade war. 

Early in May, Murlin once mentioned in his video that he felt the tension brought by the U.S.-China tariff war, and he was grateful to have met so many warm and kind-hearted followers from China online, hoping that people can all be good neighbors in this "global village".

Recently, Chinese media outlet Guancha.cn conducted an interview with Murlin. Below are compiled excerpts from the conversation by Beijing Review Dossier. Join us as we follow Murlin to hear the voices of real market players in the U.S. amid the aftershocks of tariff policies. 

Murlin: Yeah, I actually pretty much stopped buying things during the trade war. It was pointless to buy anything. Everything was so up in the air. In fact, I have a friend who was starting a video arcade in America, she bought several arcade video games from a manufacturer in China. She spent over $100,000 on goods just to get started. And shortly after they were manufactured and shipped, the tariffs came into effect. So they were sitting on the water outside of the American ports, and she was unable to offload these things because she would have to pay double or almost triple what she originally paid for. There were a lot of situations like that. 

So I didn't even buy anything during this time. You know, for my business, we have inflatable bounce castles or inflatable water slides. And the majority of them are made in China, specifically Guangzhou. I was not going to order anything during that time.

Murlin: ……In theory, our leadership thought it was a good idea for the American people. But one thing that I don't think was very considered or maybe cared about was people in poverty. So a middle class person or wealthier could withstand inflation like this, but a person who is already struggling to get by is not going to make it through very well. The people that it was affecting the most were, our leadership was saying that it was going to help in the long run, and that didn't really make sense. I know it was affecting you guys as well. I was worried about my friends in China, honestly.

Basically what people were saying is this is not going to really help average American citizen because what the American companies are going to do is going to pass on that cost to the consumer. So you know, if you tax us 150% to import goods here, who is going to pay that 150%? I guarantee it was not going to be the corporation. It's going to be the consumer. The corporation is not going to eat that cost. That's what happens in corporate America.

I was faced with an ethical decision myself being a business owner. I wasn't at the time importing anything. But still, the cost of living is increasing. Oil prices were increasing, everything was increasing around me. And there's a temptation for the business owner to pass on that cost to their customers, so I had to take a really good look at myself and say, what kind of person am I going to be? Am I going to be the person that passing this on to my customers? Or am I going to eat the cost myself? So I actually made a video from our company and I shared it with people in our community. And I just said that we as a company are going to eat the cost of inflation, and we're gonna commit to not raising our prices through this time. And I'm calling on the other businesses in our community to do the same thing.

Murlin: My laptop, my vehicles, a lot of the components are made in China. And a lot of appliances are made in China. Like I shared with you, my bounce houses, my inflatables are made in China. I wouldn't have a business without it. The only other place that makes them are, I think there's a couple of facilities in Mexico and maybe the Philippines as well. A huge part of what we use comes from China, and I'm okay with that. It doesn't bug me.

You know, in America, there's this idea that “made in China” is like a bad thing. The more I think about it, the more I start to think that this idea is perpetuated by basically American companies that want all the market share to themselves. If you compare the quality, I don't have bad quality products that are made in China. They're a 10th of the cost before they get shipped to the U.S. And then the U.S. company is selling for eight times more than they bought them for. These are the same companies that tell people “Ah, made in China (is bad)”, you know, so made in China does not bug me.

In fact, now that, this trade war is over, I'm going to be extensively researching Chinese products, extensively researching how I can afford to live cheaper by buying from China.

The article was first published in Chinese on Wechat official account "Dixian Siwei" on May, 20th. The views don't necessarily reflect those of BejingReviewDossier.